To give a quick forward: if you’re here exclusively for dating advice, we have that. But while you’re looking for the right person, you should always focus on becoming the right person first. Can be an inconvenient truth, but theres no way around it.

Daily 20 minute sessions each of exercise, meditation, and reading is the cornerstone to becoming the best version of yourself. If you become 1% better every day, after 30 days everyone in your life will notice a difference.

A 30% increase in physical (exercise), mental (reading) and emotional (meditating) health every month will undoubtedly make you a better dating partner. You will even start to like yourself a little more.

Imagine investing 20 minutes a day on your attitude, intelligence, and attractiveness. A small price to pay for the benefits on the other side.

Anyone who say they don’t have time for self improvement, while annoying, are correct: They have time, but they spend it in other ways.

24 Hours a day

If you look at your life in 24 hour chunks, assuming you sleep *8 hours* (If not, you really should)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig] you have *16 waking hours* to dedicate to self improvement.

If you have a job, assuming you spend 9-5 at work, thats *8 hours* blocked off by “Work” or “Improvement of Job Skills,” however you want to look at it. More on that later

Now say you spend *1 hour* getting ready for work and getting there, and it takes *1 hour* to drive home and unwind.

Now thats *10 hours* (8 + 2) a day consumed by work and only 6 available for self improvement.

We could start with New Years Resolution style Ra-Ra and say were gonna “Spend 6 hours every day after work busting our ass!!” but thats unrealistic. Instead of worrying about spending your remaining 6 hours productively, lets start with adding some systems into the 10 hour chunk to make it more productive.

James Clear talks about it in atomic habits, but systems are for winners and habits are for losers. Systems include creating daily environmental cues that trigger automatic productive behavior, whereas Habits rely solely on willpower and can be interrupted by external circumstances of the day.

So lets go back to the 10 hour chunk of work and add some systems: if you have 30 minute commute each way to work, thats *1 hour* spent in the car plus hopefully a *1 hour* lunch break.

On your hour lunch break:

Lets assume you can go get lunch and spend 30 minutes reading a book while you eat.

Pick a non-fiction book in the area you most want to improve in. See book recommendations. Something like Thinking Fast and Slow if you want to understand psychology, or Way of the Wolf if you want to understand sales. Books are roughly 200 pages and have 10 pages a chapter. Reading 10 pages a day, 5 days a week, you will finish *1 book a month.*

During your 1 hour in the car:

you can listen to *40 minutes* of audiobook and do *20 minutes* of vocal exercises every day just on your way to and home from work.

Most audio books are about 7 hours. If you spend 40 minutes a day in the car 5 days a week, you will finish a new book about every 2 weeks or *2 books a month. *

Singing exercises were a random example, but it can be anything you want to chose as a hobby to improve on. (5 days a week of 20 minutes of practice will tremendously improve anyones singing voice, by the way)

If you want to be a sports blogger, listen to a basketball podcast for those 20 minutes. Listen to self confidences mantras or affirmations if thats your thing. You get the point. You can even spend the extra 20 minutes a day learning new music. Learning the lyrics to songs you like is good brain exercise.

The point is you now have the reading portion of the 3 tenants satisfied. (Plus a various improved skill or knowledge, in our example an improved singing voice)

3 books a month (1 paperback, 2 audio) is nothing to sneeze at. Anyone who crushes 36 books a year is a dangerous person. Do that for 10 years and you’ll be a genius on the other side of it.

Now that we’re mentally stimulated, we have a 6 hours a day to knock out 40 minutes of exercising and meditating.

Lets hypothetically block off an additional *1 hour* before work where we :

• Mediate for 20 minutes (easy using the Headspace app or guided meditations on youtube). Seems impossible at first but you get into it. Makes you honest and at peace with yourself. Invaluable attitude booster and brain activity, it even makes you smarter.
• Push ups + abs or even a 20 minute yoga video on youtube
• 20 minutes leftover for shower + breakfast. (Big Bonus points if you’re taking cold showers, and even more bonus points if you’re watching motivational videos while you eat breakfast. Eat 4 Eggs every day for increased testosterone. https://anabolicmen.com/triple-your-testosterone-cheat-sheet-by-tim-ferriss/)

Your schedule could look like :

Wake 7 am

7am – 8am Meditate, Exercise, Breakfast, Shower

8am-9am Get Ready/ Commute to work (audio books)

9am-12:30 pm Improve Work Skills

12:30pm-1:30 pm lunch break/read

1:30 pm – 5:00 pm improve work skills.

5-6 pm Commute home (audio books)

6-11 pm Free Time

11 Pm Sleep

If you follow this schedule, you will still have 6-11 free every night.

Free Time

You will see self improvement quick. Even if you spend your free time eating pizza and playing video games. Although you shouldn’t do that, you are still putting in enough work to improve 1% every day.

You will be feel proud to be a loving servant to your daily routine. A Stockholm Syndrome of sorts. Trust the Process. After a few weeks, you grow addicted to the progress and it becomes a positive feedback loop. Make sure you do your systems every day to reinforce the habit, even when you don't feel like it.

Eventually, you will begin to create new systems throughout the day. You will weave in more automatic habits surrounding the things you focus on.

Fitness

If you love your boyfriend, you’ll call him every night. If you like stocks, you’ll check Robinhood every few hours. Whatever it is we focus on, we create opportunities to spend time.

If fitness is a goal to you (and since you're here, yes fitness is a goal to you) you’ll eventually lovingly adopt the habit of dragging yourself to the gym after work 3 nights a week. Say Mo/Wed/Thur.

You’ll get out around 7pm feeling awesome and invigorated and ready to take on the night. Use the time after either 1.) Socializing or 2.) Learning a new skill or an online class.

Socializing

For social life, it’s nice to have systems in place there too. Pick a night during the week for trivia night or bowling league and get a team together. A specific night of the week gives you something to do and something consistent to look forward to.

To stay sane it’s important to have 1.) Something to do 2.) Something to look forward to and 3.) Someone to love.

For dating, it’s easy to set up a few dates a week using dating apps like Hinge. Use good pictures, have a funny profile, flirt for a few messages and then ask her to hang out.

Pick a gym day usually and set the date for 7 or 8pm when you finish. A local bar near your gym but also your house. It’s easy to go on 2x dates a week with new girls (if your game is good) and once you meet ones you like you can hang out with them on the weekends or even pick one of your post gym nights to spend with her every week.

Lessons and Classes:

For learning a new skill, think of something you’ve always wanted to learn how to do. Yoga. Pottery, Guitar, Improv. A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or MMA class twice a week would be a great hobby to invest in. I personally have 1 on 1 singing lessons twice a week not to brag.

Online classes are also invaluable. So many free or cheap classes on lydia or coursera. Spending $10 and 3 hours a week on a photoshop class will pay off for the rest of your life. Spending $10 on beer and 3 hours a week playing on your phone will make 3 hours pass, and thats it.

You can get endless certifications that teach you new marketing skills for free on Google Digital Garage and Hubspot. If you want to learn coding, Python is a great language to start with and there’s a great free online book called “Automate the Boring Stuff.” Harvard also has a great a free online class Computer Science CS-50 to understand computers better in general

This hypothetical week still has Tuesday night, Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday free to do whatever we want. But we’re massively improving every week by intertwining systems into our 7am-6pm schedule:

~40 hours a week into improving work skills (If you’re bored at a desk job and going through the motions, it’s worth it to spend your extra time learning software or relevant skills. How you spend your focused free time at work will make a huge difference on your career trajectory. Find a mentor at your company if possible to teach you everything they know)

~ 5 hours a week (at least) into reading and consuming knowledge.

~ 2 hours a week on individual skill curating (singing lessons example)

~2 hours a week of Exercise

~ 2 Hours of a week of Meditating

Bonus:

~ 3 hours a week into body building

~Dates or Social Events after gym

~ X hours a week Skill Practiced after gym

This example daily script is heavily focused on habits and routines in the morning and right after work. It is a good intermediate schedule for transitioning from a sedentary lifestyle to a productive one. You still have 4 free nights a week to lay on the couch and watch Netflix if you must. At least you’ll feel good about yourself.

As a self improving man, it is imperative to weave Exercise, Reading, and Meditating into your daily schedule if it is not already.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and let me know how you have systems in place to become more productive every day too.

Not sure if this self promoting but I also just made a website AlbertCoaching.com and this is my only post on there, but you can read it there again later

Thanks for reading!